Grow-Off Show-off

Congratulations to Our 2007 Winners!

2008-02-12T20:47:18Z

More Than Just Beans & Rice Centro Escolar Los Gramales (The Gramales Scholastic Center); Gualococti, Morazan, El Salvador (Grand Prize Tie, $250 donated by Mother Earth News). Aiming to add vegetables to the traditional community diet of beans, rice and tortillas, the school started a kitchen garden with tomatoes, peppers and pipian, a type of squash. After witnessing the great success of their organic garden, many local parents are now beginning to compost and garden with their children at home. Ultra-High-Altitude Gardening Gargy Shiksha Sadan; Kathmandu, Nepal (Grand Prize Tie, $250 donated by Mother Earth News). In this cold region with mainly yak farming and little fertile land, most of the people suffer from malnutrition. The Gargy Shiksha Sadan kitchen garden program was launched to improve the health of the community. The two women shown are working in their new cauliflower field. Spreading the Hilladay Cheer Jennifer Hill; Danbury, Conn. (2nd Prize, a portable tiller/cultivator donated by Mantis). Hill inspires new gardeners to take up the trowel by sharing tips and recipes, plus new and unusual kitchen garden varieties from her garden and garden blog: hilladay.blogspot.com. Lettuce & Laughter Christopher Brandow; Pasadena, Calif. (3rd Prize, eco-friendly gear from Patagonia). Brandow planted his vegetable garden in the front yard due to space constraints. He’s since watched both the veggies and his community friendships grow, with neighbors dropping by to inquire and sample. Christopher says among his tomatoes, eggplant and artichokes he grows conversation,laughter and community. He's also growing a great blog here: frontyardveggies.wordpress.com By Crikey, Let’s Grow Food! The Hills and Plains Seed Savers; Adelaide, South Australia (4th Prize, a $100 gift certificate to Johnny’s Selected Seeds). The Seed Savers have built an international network of thousands of new and experienced gardeners. They are “truly making a difference, by telling our own stories, and linking people to Web sites all over the world that offer new and interesting ideas.” You can connect with our Australian friends at: hillsandplainsseedsavers.blogspot.com. Kids Dig In Garden at Kachina Country Day School; Paradise Valley, Ariz. (5th Prize, organic fertilizer from Neptune’s Harvest). SunflowerOcity.com members revitalized this neglected garden in August 2007. The garden project has sparked additional kitchen garden efforts, inspiring the school to sponsor an “Adopt a School Garden Contest” of their own.

Looking for inspiration? Here are some ideas:

2007-05-15T02:04:55Z

Last year's grand prize winner, Jennifer Love of Kentucky, entered her artistically painted minivan.

Yard signs were popular. Kelli Ploeger of Tennessee won herself some garden equipment for her simple sign made from salvaged materials.

Although not entered in the competition, KGI's Roger Doiron also made a sign for his own yard (below) which was a local success and made the evening news (watch the YouTube video here). For those interested, this sign is available for download as a pdf file and can be copied onto a disc and printed out at your local copy center. Please note that this a large sign and a large file (3 megabytes).

Entries from young gardeners (in body or at heart) are encouraged. A couple years back, Eliot Morrison, a youthful artist and animator from California, sent us this amazing animated short which is sure to inspire:

An entertaining and/or informative narrated garden tour is an idea. Tell us what's special about you and your garden. Inspire us. Make us laugh. Make us cry. Teach us and the world something we didn't know. This professionally-filmed, elaborate garden tour video posted on YouTube might give you some ideas for a simpler, shorter version of your own.

We love food-themed videos. Tell us why your berries, melons, or home-grown peaches are the absolute best in the world and what you do with them. Other kitchen gardeners make good home-made salsa or pesto. Tell us in pictures, film, song, or dance why yours rocks.

We also love food-for-thought. This is your chance to reach a large national and even international audience with your creativity and ideas. We put together this simple youtube video together on a shoestring budget and a tattered shoestring at that. What story do you have to tell?

What may I enter into competition?

2007-05-14T21:59:56Z

We’re really open to just about any type of entry. Last year’s winner, Jennifer Love of Kentucky, entered her minivan, well not the van itself which she explained to us that she still needed, but photos of it bedecked in gardening pictures and slogans. Others entered yard signs and digital art posted on the web. This year, we’re opening the floodgates wide open, so let your creative juices flow! We’re looking for high-impact, engaging entries that are capable of reaching a large audience, either through the power of the internet or through direct person-to-person contact. While we like being entertained, we’re also open to more serious, food-for-thought entries about the food we eat and the many reasons for shortening the distance between field and fork, plot and plate. Here are a few ideas to get your creative neurons firing: • Do you have a high profile garden, front-yard garden, community garden or school garden with lots of foot traffic and salivating, hungry gawkers? Enter that by sending us a picture or two and telling us how your garden is having an impact in your community. • Are you a budding young filmmaker, animator or Youtuber? Enter your home-grown online video or animation by letting us know where it’s posted and what people are saying about it. • Are you a musician, singer, rapper, or slam poet? Enter a video or audio recording of you performing your original garden-themed composition and tell us how many people have heard you perform it (eg. I performed my original song “I’ve got the tasteless, supermarket tomato blues” at this year’s state fair before 1000 screaming, brandywine-loving fans). • Do you like to make people laugh? Film yourself doing a stand-up comedy routine in your garden and post it online. Tell us about your day-to-day battles with the neighborhood woodchuck and how you finally managed to outsmart him. • Are you a muralist or some other type of artist? Enter a photo of your garden-themed artwork and tell us where it is on display and how it’s getting people to think about food and gardens in a new way.

What can I win?

2007-05-14T21:39:59Z

The Grand Prize is $500 in cash donated by Mother Earth News 2nd prize is a powerful, yet portable garden tiller donated by Mantis 3rd prize is an assortment of eco-friendly clothing donated by Patagonia 4th prize is a $100 gift certificate donated by Johnny’s Selected Seeds 5th prize is a gallon of organic fertilizer concentrate donated by Neptune’s Harvest Winning entries will receive national media exposure through this website and a feature article in Mother Earth News in 2008. Early entries are encouraged! The first 50 contestants to enter will receive a free one-year membership in Kitchen Gardeners International and a free 6-month subscription to Mother Earth News.

Judging criteria

2007-05-14T21:36:08Z

Entries will be judged on the following basis: • Style: How fresh and creative is the entry? • Substance: How well does the entry help communicate the multiple benefits – health, environmental, culinary, and community - of home-grown, locally-grown, home-cooked foods? • Impact and outreach: How many people experienced or are experiencing the entry? Has the garden or gardener received any media (print, TV, radio, online) attention? Does the entry include any reference back to KGI or the contest via a mention of one of our web addresses (igrowfood.com, wegrowfood.com, kitchengardeners.org, or growoffshowoff.org)? • X-factor: How do all the elements above come together into a deliciously effective whole?

How to enter

2007-05-14T21:30:04Z

PLEASE NOTE: The deadline has passed for this year's contest. Please check back here in the spring of 2008 to find learn about the deadline for next year's contest.

Contest sponsors

2007-05-14T20:42:02Z

Kitchen Gardeners International Kitchen Gardeners International (KGI) is a 501c3 nonprofit network of over 3600 home-gardeners and cooks from 80 countries. Our mission is to empower individuals, families, and communities to achieve greater levels of food self-reliance through the promotion of kitchen gardening, home-cooking, and sustainable local food systems. In doing so, KGI seeks to connect, serve, and expand the global community of people who grow some of their own food. On the web at: www.kitchengardeners.org Mother Earth News The most-popular and longest-running sustainable living magazine, Mother Earth News provides wide-ranging, expert editorial coverage of organic and whole foods, green transportation, eco-friendly products, renewable energy, natural health, and green building. Lively, insightful and on the cutting edge, Mother Earth News is the definitive read for the growing number of Americans who choose wisely and live well. On the web at: www.motherearthnews.com

With other prizes donated by

You're good and it's time the world knew it

2007-05-11T22:18:30Z

Contests. Contests. They’re everywhere. Athletes have the Olympics. Singers have American Idol. Survivors have, well, Survivor. Heck, even bakers have the Pillsbury Bake-Off. But what about us kitchen gardeners? We have talents too (aside compost pile turning and pesto-making) and it’s time we shared them! The Grow-Off Show-Off is a light-hearted, no-holds-barred talent contest for gardeners who cook, cooks who garden, and other "dirt-y minded" food lovers. We’re looking for fresh, creative entries that communicate the many benefits of home-grown, home-cooked foods. The Grow-Off Show-Off is a project of Kitchen Gardeners International and is co-sponsored by Mother Earth News. Deadline for entries is November 1, 2007.